Psychology Behind Simple Video

[sniplet Simple Video]

There’s no doubt that videos are cool and fun to watch – certainly more fun than reading page after page of text let’s face it. It’s become rather well known that having a video on your website that explains what you do, what you offer, why people should choose you or how you work, will get a better response from your audience.

But, why?

Aside from being more exciting than text, there are underlying reasons hidden deep within the brain that make video an extremely valuable tool for business owners.

Let’s start by looking at it in terms of time. You have about 8 seconds to capture the attention of a visitor to your website. If they don’t leave by then what are the odds they are going to leave understanding, let alone remembering your message?

Well, if you only provide text or audio, your visitor will only remember 10% of what they read 72 hours later. How much will they remember if they watch a video? Wait for it…..

68 percent!

To understand this a little more we looked into recent research being done in cognitive psychology and found out that the brain works in a pretty fascinating way. We discovered that when trying to captivate an audience’s attention, keep their attention and send them home with a message they remember, there are three important factors to keep in mind.

1. Keep it simple.

Only include relevant information and movement. Our brain stores working memory, which only has a certain capacity. Non essential information will take up that space and distract from the learning and this is why we make sure our videos aren’t too busy – to keep the viewer focused on the message.

2. Know your audience.

Your viewer’s prior knowledge is important to know. That’s because new knowledge is built on that foundation. Also it’s much easier to retrieve at a later time, when it’s attached to something they already know and understand. This is why we use analogies in our videos so often.

3. Use powerful learning tools.

Dual coding theory is key! What is it?
Combining audio and visual information together for the purpose of learning.

Don’t forget that your viewer will remember 58% more when you teach through both these senses.

As our attention spans get increasingly shorter, the time you have to captivate your audience and explain what you do also becomes shorter.

That is why simple, explanatory video is such a powerful business tool. Don’t forget to check out our final video on December 10th that you can share with all your video friends!

Psychology Behind Simple Video was last modified: February 25th, 2015 by Brandon Houston